How good is Vans RV-7 tail intersection fairing
 

So, I have an RV-7 tail on my RV-6. The intersection fairing from the RV-6 is pretty much useless since the -6 does not have an offset in the vertical stab like the -7. I have seen the aftermarket options (which look great), but at $250 they are too rich for me.

My options are to buy a fairing from Vans or make one from scratch. For those that have purchased recently, how is the fit of the Vans fairing? Pretty good, or not even close?

If it is pretty good, then I'll just go that route and save the trouble. If the fit is bad I'll make one from scratch and save the cost of a new fairing.

Colin,
The fit is not terrible but no where close to where folks have made their own fairings.
The worst part of my fit was the leading edge to the horizontal stab. Folks say if you use a heat gun you can persuade the fiberglass to fit better

Jack

Mine was from Vans in 2013, all of it fit OK but the front HS part had to be cut off and re done, I still spent one month on it.

Factory out of the box


Little gap on leading edge needed flattened


After a few hours


I added lower enclosure/capture strips...added probably 10hrs


3 screws trailing edge of each side, 2 upper 1below, hold it in place. Vans fairing worked well for me

Thank you for the replies. Overall it looks like the fit is ok, but not great. Still probably easier than starting from scratch. I think I will go ahead with the Vans part and tweak as needed.

Thanks,

I heard about a trick to cut the Vans fairing in half at the leading edge. I did this and each side fit nicely. You then just need to fiberglass the halves together across the 1/4" gap that will be there. Pretty easy.

The thing about the fibreglass in Van's kits is the variability. Some are much better than others. That tail intersection fairing was less trouble for me than some of the other parts because it's easier to shape with heat.